NOVEL NEXT Chapter 52
Chapter 53
At first glance, Yeon-woo seemed to be attempting to pull out a Mandrake without any preparation. No earplugs, no magical sound barriers. But instead of crafting such complex rituals, Yeon-woo gathered aura around their throat.
“Living Point.”
This is the first of Choi Yeon-woo’s specially selected knowledge that is essential to life.
“To counter the Mandrake’s scream, just scream louder than it!”
A true man’s trademark, fighting like a real man.
With a strong yank, the Mandrake’s root was pulled out. The root was intricately shaped like a woman. As the root that twisted like legs was pulled out, it released immense mana.
『Kiiiii────!!』
“Waaah────!!!”
The vocal cords filled with magic, combined with the single-minded desire to shout loudly, activated a spell of amplification.
One simply cannot surpass the Mandrake in terms of volume. Its scream is woven with patterns of mana designed to kill living beings.
However, hearing the Mandrake’s scream from a distance doesn’t mean a person will die. A little scream won’t kill someone. Ultimately, how clearly you hear that scream determines its lethal dose.
That being said, it’s possible to prevent death even with the simplest approach against the Mandrake’s scream.
‘After all, if I scream super loudly, it’ll drown out all other sounds!!’
With Yeon-woo’s voice disrupting the Mandrake’s scream, Shar, who was covering her ears behind Yeon-woo, would hardly hear even a hint of the Mandrake’s cries.
Sure, her throat might get a bit sore, but so what!!
Minutes passed.
“Choi Yeon-woo… Victory!!”
As Yeon-woo triumphantly lifted the blood-dripping, limp Mandrake high into the air, their voice was hoarse from victory.
“Wow… that was such a primitive coping method… It worked so well, I’m feeling a bit self-loathing…”
“Simple is best. Ideally, we should consume it as is, but Shar, is there any magic to keep it fresh?”
“Hmm… How about freezing it first?”
“Yeah, please do.”
Shar began to slowly cast a spell, starting to freeze the Mandrake from the inside out. Once that job was complete, they could leave.
Anyway, all they had to do now was head back to the Academy, and today’s agenda would be complete. Starting tomorrow, it’s back to life at the Academy.
“Wow, I missed our friends after not seeing them for a week. I wonder what they’ve been up to?”
Despite their friends visiting the dorm multiple times only to find Yeon-woo absent, Yeon-woo mused about it with a straight face.
What would those friends who failed to catch them say after a week of their absence, fully unaware of the situation?
Even Yeon-woo, who could see the future, couldn’t know that truth.
By the time Yeon-woo and Shar returned to Harmony City, the sky had turned completely dark. The brilliant sunlight was replaced by a cool moonlight, and stars sparkled like jewels in what had once been fluffy clouds.
Looking up at the sky, it was as if a heavy pattern of stars had been embedded like a blackout curtain. Shar, forgetting all about her sleepy yawns, gazed at the sky.
“They say it was hard to see such a sky in the old days.”
“Gosh… how pitiful those people must have been…”
Shar’s blunt thought made Yeon-woo burst into laughter. It was such a childlike thought, wasn’t it?
There was a strange sense of joy in witnessing something that had become visible as human territory shrank, but if Shar was delighted by it, then that was fine.
“Then let’s ask the Master about Dongja Sam and get it for consumption. I wonder where the Heukdong Ogong’s inner elixir will be used?”
“Hmm? Does the Heukdong Ogong’s inner elixir have any special significance?”
Yeon-woo had stopped by a street food stall before heading to the dorm. Since it would take time for the order to come out anyway, Yeon-woo decided to answer Shar’s curiosity while teaching her the basics of elixircraft.
There are several types of elixirs. First, they are divided into artificially manufactured and natural versions, and from there, the properties of the elixirs are categorized.
For instance, Dongja Sam is the classic elixir, while Mannyeonseol Sam boosts yin energy, and the inner elixir of Hwa-ri (Fire Carp) represents an elixir that boosts yang energy.
If they went into finer details, the distinctions could become excessive, so the most commonly used classification is between elixirs and poisons.
“Generally, elixirs are helpful unless they’re taken extremely incorrectly, but poisons are literally just lumps of toxins.”
“I see… so why do people take those?”
“This is tied to the Tang family’s philosophy… They say there’s no drug that isn’t a poison and no poison that isn’t a drug in this world.”
“…Ah, I think I get it roughly.”
“Yeah, just like vaccines and drugs with lethal doses exist.”
“What about cyanide?”
Uh… that’s…
“No matter how little you use… you’d die, right?”
“Not necessarily, it seems.”
“Right… well, I guess…”
Yeon-woo wiped the sweat off their brow while seeing Shar nod in understanding. Who would have thought she would mention cyanide? That would definitely be a poison.
“But poisons are different. This is one that, as the saying goes, is indeed like a vaccine.”
“Are you saying it builds resistance to poison?”
“Not just any specific poison, but overall resistance to protein-based poisons.”
“Eh? The Heukdong Ogong’s poison is just paralysis poison, though.”
“That’s the greatness of the inner elixir of the spirit creature. The inner elixir is essentially a crystallization created over a long period from the mana of the spirit creature…”
At that, Shar made a face of disgust. The proprietor of the street food stall looked at the two as if wondering what weird story they were telling. Indeed, talking about crystallization in a restaurant might not be the best choice, so Yeon-woo, holding the food they had just packaged in one hand and using the other to support Shar’s bottom, headed toward the dorm.
It was already too late to go sell leather or gemstones at the Hunter Guild, and since they had two precious elixirs, they decided to visit the guild tomorrow when they had time.
“Crystallization, of all things… why do you have to say it like that…”
“Well, it’s not wrong… Anyway, the inner elixir is made from the most pure mana accumulating over time, so what do you think the poison will be?”
“Is it the purest poison…?”
“Good job, sharp-witted Shar. You can have ice cream for dessert!”
“Wow!! Give me more questions!!”
“I won’t give you more if you get it right!”
“Eek… then forget it…”
“Well, whether you want it or not.”
As Yeon-woo walked on in silence. Initially, Shar had a pouty expression suggesting she was going to play coy, but soon enough, she looked up at Yeon-woo with a face that seemed almost teary-eyed.
“Ugh, if I must, then it’s just the purest poison. In other words… it’s the basic form of all poisons.”
“Wow, that’s more impressive than I expected…?”
A precise expression would be that it is a protein with slight toxicity. When one has a resistance to the most basic structure constituting a poison, it makes sense that the potency of poisons built off that base would weaken.
“In that sense, the one who can get the greatest effect from consuming this poison will be from the Dang Sa-ryeon. For me, it would only keep my body healthy, but a martial artist using poisoning techniques can refine their internal energy from it.”
“Did that lady willingly give up something like that?”
“Well… if it’s the Dang Sa-ryeon, she must have experienced plenty of elixirs that could trivialize the Heukdong Ogong’s inner elixir.”
While it wasn’t unhelpful, it was also not strikingly beneficial, as she was probably standing on a vague peak where it didn’t do much help. She probably wanted to leave a good impression on some nameless small hero instead.
Thinking that way, it struck Yeon-woo that she was indeed a bit cute in a childlike way.
“Dad, you’re not thinking about another woman, are you?”
“Haha, of course not. No way.”
*
“Phew, what a workout.”
Emerging from the shower section attached to the Body Training Room, Yeon-woo muttered to themselves.
It was early morning. It had been a week since receiving the somewhat harsh training regimen from Yuri, but thankfully, they didn’t feel rusty.
On the contrary, it felt easier than before heading to the gorge. After all, there were still hours left before the first class, unlike on the first day when they didn’t finish until just before class.
‘Maybe it has something to do with the awakening of the Aura Blade.’
As Yeon-woo sat in the lobby of the Body Training Room, something heavy plopped onto them.
Shar, who had dashed out from the separated women’s shower room, ran toward Yeon-woo. The sweet smell of shampoo tickled their nose as her warm, little body collided with Yeon-woo’s abdomen.
“I’ve been waiting, Daddy!?”
“No, I just came out too. Shall we go have breakfast?”
Yeon-woo twirled around, naturally catching her, supporting her back and bottom with one hand each.
Such a natural motion elicited gasps from a few students nearby.
If they didn’t show such a father-daughter dynamic, there would surely be those who’d think of them as “a crazy kid who thinks they’re a dragon and a pedophile who calls her that.”
“By the way, I don’t see Kim Yoo-min again today.”
“True?”
Of course, there were times when Yoo-min was occasionally absent even before the gate practice, but that was understandable. However, he should have been the one training regardless of Yeon-woo’s presence or absence. With questions brewing in his mind, Yeon-woo asked a student lounging nearby, who had been relatively familiar around the morning training room.
“Hey, has Kim Yoo-min not shown up today either?”
“Hmm? Oh, I haven’t seen him for a few days.”
“…Really? Is something wrong?”
“Just… last time I saw him, he looked a bit down…”
“What happened?”
I don’t know, I’m not that close with him… With that, Yeon-woo said goodbye to the friend lounging on the cool floor, who was rolling around, and left the training room.
“Hmmm… Should I go check on him?”
“Is that your type of older sister!?”
“No, it’s just something Professor Kim Hyun-soo asked me to do.”
“Hehe, I get it. Just kidding.”
I wonder if one day I’ll gain enough trust as a father so that I wouldn’t have to deal with those kinds of teasing remarks? My heart ached a little at the thought.
“I should visit Darius, who’s refusing to go to school, and check on Kim Yoo-min… wow, I’m quite the popular guy, huh?”
“Isn’t it the visitors that are popular? Nobody came to visit you. It’s the opposite, the opposite.”
“No… no way. Someone must have come. There must have been. We just didn’t know because we were outside, right?”
“Really?”
Surprisingly, Yeon-woo’s guess was correct, but there was no one to receive the visitors who had come while the two were away, and since they had shown their student IDs as they entered, there was no guard to report who had visited.
At present, Choi Yeon-woo was simply a social failure, having spent a week in recovery without anyone checking in.
“The calm before the storm… The results shall tell…”
“Those who lose often say that.”
“Ugh… Ugh…!!”
As Yeon-woo thought about how his daughter had become a master of verbal sparring.
For the sake of fatherly dignity, perhaps it was time to find a book on verbal combat. Should I learn some midwifery techniques from Socrates?
(To be continued in the next episode)